But while the carpenters worked, the Commodore went afloat with the _Oneida_ and six armed schooners on October 8th. And then there was a fight over at Kingston. Finding the _Royal George_ out at the False Duck Islands the Commodore chased her into Kingston Harbor, and then at 3 o’clock he decided to run in and see what sort of defences the port had. Two of his schooners were off chasing merchantmen, but the remaining four, carrying a long thirty-two each, went in ahead of the _Oneida_. One, the _Pert_, had the misfortune to burst her big gun. Her commander, Sailing-master Arundel, was badly hurt and four others slightly. Arundel refused to leave the deck, but by accident fell overboard and was drowned. The other schooners kept up a brisk fire on the five batteries about the harbor, while the _Oneida_, which carried only sixteen short twenty-fours, holding her fire, ranged up beside the _Royal George_ and then gave it to her. In twenty minutes the British had had enough of it, and chopping their rope cables they ran their ship to the shore where the water was so shoal that the holes in her hull couldn’t sink her and a big body of troops could defend her. Then finding the shore batteries too heavy and the wind rising against his course out of the harbor, Chauncey retreated. The _Royal George_ had been well beaten and the schooner _Simeo_ sunk. And thereafter four schooners sufficed to blockade the port of Kingston until the ice relieved them of the task. The expedition under General Wilkinson that left Sackett’s Harbor at the beginning of October, 1813, to attack Montreal, is worth a paragraph, because it shows how utterly futile it usually was and is to give a sailor’s work to a landsman. Everything was ready on October 4th, but the order to start was not issued until the 12th, and the order was not obeyed until the 17th. When they did finally get away the huge flotilla of boats was not only overloaded, but the start was made at night when one of the long, fierce storms of the region was coming on. Fifteen large boats were lost that night, while every soul afloat endured the greatest hardships from wind and sleet. After waiting along-shore and among the islands for the storm to end, the expedition pushed on and reached Grenadier Island on the 20th. They went on eventually, beginning on the 29th, but the delays had given the enemy every opportunity to gather to oppose the expedition. They passed Prescott on the night of the 6th, but they came to grief when on the 11th they met the enemy at Chrysler’s farm, below Williamsburg. Instead of capturing Montreal they built winter-quarters on Salmon River. [Illustration: Wilkinson’s Flotilla. _From an old wood-cut._]